Claire Gem

The Phoenix Syndrome Claire Gem

Turning forty, for Lannie Marvin, is rough. It's the day she discovers her husband is leaving her for a younger "soulmate." At work, a crazed mouse being treated with an experimental drug brutally bites her. Then, Lannie goes a little crazy, too. Seems she's recently developed a serious crush on the drummer of her son's favorite heavy metal band. Waking up to her husband's empty closet, her finger still throbbing from the mouse bite, Lannie snaps. Under the ruse of a shopping trip, Lannie kidnaps her sister-in-law/best friend, and heads toward Bethel, New York - the site of the original Woodstock concert. Just so happens Dreamwish is playing a concert there, and Lannie managed to procure the pair of tickets her son won but couldn't use. Tristan Allard, the band's drummer, holds this benefit every year in memory of his wife, whom he lost to breast cancer. The musician is beginning to doubt his ability to write the band's music without his wife's inspiration - she was also his muse. Plus, he's damn lonely. So when a sexually charged, extremely attractive, slightly older woman literally plows into him at the backstage reception, Tristan is ready to learn more about her - and her long-buried interest in musical composition. The two head off for a wild ride of a weekend, but reality boomerangs around way too soon. Tristan is headed to the UK to audition his next album's scores. And an elevated libido isn't the only side-effect of that experimental drug. Lannie soon discovers the treated mice have gone deaf.